Before we go on, let me tell you of some of the curious customs which
Boone noticed among the Indians, during his captivity. He had a fine
opportunity for observation, and I think these strange customs will
interest you.
It is not wonderful that Indian men and women are so hardy; they are
trained to it from their youth: and Boone tells us how they are trained.
When a child is only eight years old, this training commences; he is then
made to fast frequently half a day; when he is twelve, he is made to fast
a whole day. During the time of this fast, the child is left alone, and
his face is always blacked. This mode of hardening them is kept up with
girls until they are fourteen--with boys until they are eighteen. At
length, when a boy has reached the age of eighteen, his parents tell him
that his education is completed, and that he is old enough to be a man!
His face is now to be blacked for the last time. He is taken to a
solitary cabin far away from the village; his face is blacked, and then
his father makes to him a speech of this kind: "My son, the Great Spirit
has allowed you to live to see this day. We have all noticed your conduct
since I first began to black your face. All people will understand
whether you have followed your father's advice, and they will treat you
accordingly. You must now remain here until I come after you." The lad is
then left alone. His father then goes off hunting, as though nothing had
happened, and leaves his boy to bear his hunger as long it is possible
for him to starve and live. At length he prepares a great feast, gathers
his friends together, and then returns. The lad is then brought home, his
face is washed in cold water, his hair is shaved, leaving nothing but the
scalp-lock; they all commence eating, but the food of the lad is placed
before him in a separate dish. This being over, a looking-glass and a bag
of paint are then presented to him. Then they all praise him for his
firmness, and tell him that he is a man. Strange as it may seem, a boy is
hardly ever known to break his fast when he is blacked this way for the
last time. It is looked upon as something base, and they have a dread
that the Great Spirit will punish them if they are disobedient to their
parents.
Another curious habit which surprised Boone was that of continually
changing names. A white man carries the same name from the cradle to the
grave, but among these people it was very different. Their principal
arms, as you know, are the tomahawk and scalping-knife, and he who can
take the greatest number of scalps is the greatest man. From time to
time, as warriors would return from an attack upon some enemy, these new
names would begin to be known. Each man would count the number of scalps
he had taken, and a certain number entitled him to a new name, in token
of his bravery. It is not wonderful that they were revengeful, when they
were stimulated by this sort of ambition. Besides this, they believed
that he who took the scalp of a brave man received at once all his
courage and other good qualities; and this made them more eager in their
thirst for scalps. In this way, names of warriors were sometimes changed
three or four times in a year.
Marriages in this tribe were conducted very decently. When a young
warrior desired to marry, he assembled all his friends, and named the
woman whom he wished for his wife. His relations then received his
present, and took it to the parents of the young woman. If they were
pleased with the proposal, they would dress the young woman in her
gayest clothes, and take her, with bundles of presents, to the friends of
the warrior; then, if she pleased, she was to be married. There was no
compulsion in the matter. If she was not satisfied, she had only to
return his present to the young warrior, and this was considered a
refusal.
Their mode of burying their dead was very much like that of all the
Indians. The dead body was sometimes placed in a pen made of sticks and
covered over with bark; sometimes it was placed in a grave, and covered
first with bark, and then with dirt; and sometimes, especially in the
case of the young, it was placed in a rude coffin, and suspended from the
top of a tree. This last was a common mode of infant burial, and the
mother of the child would often be found, long after, standing under the
tree, and singing songs to her babe.
Boone witnessed, too, the mode in which war-parties start off for war.
The budget, or medicine-bag, is first made up. This bag contains
something belonging to each man of the party--something usually
representing some animal, such as the skin of a snake, the tail of a
buffalo, the horns of a buck, or the feathers of a bird. It is always
regarded as a very sacred thing. The leader of the party goes before with
this; the rest follow in single file. When they come to a stand, the
budget is laid down in front, and no man may pass it without permission.
To keep their thoughts upon the enterprise in which they are engaged, no
man is allowed to talk of women or his home. At night, when they encamp,
the heart of whatever animal has been killed during the day is cut into
small pieces and then burnt. During the burning no man is allowed to step
across the fire, but must always walk around it in the direction of the
sun. When they spy the enemy, and the attack is to be made, the
war-budget is opened. Each man takes out his budget, or _totem_, and
fastens it to his body. After the fight, each man again returns his
_totem_ to the leader. They are all again tied up, and given to the man
who has taken the first scalp. He then leads the party in triumph home.
Boone had not long been a prisoner among them when a successful war-party
returned home and celebrated their victory. When the party came within a
day's march of the village, a messenger was sent in to tell of their
success. An order was instantly issued that every cabin should be swept
clean, and the women as quickly commenced the work. When they had
finished, the cabins were all inspected, to see if they were in proper
order. Next day the party approached the village. They were all
frightfully painted, and each man had a bunch of white feathers on his
head. They were marching in single file, the chief of the party leading
the way, bearing in one hand a branch of cedar, laden with the scalps
they had taken, and all chanting their war-song. As they entered the
village, the chief led the way to the war-pole which stood in front of
the council-house. In this house the council-fire was then burning. The
waiter, or _Etissu_ of the leader, then fixed two blocks of wood near the
war-pole, and placed upon them a kind of ark, which was regarded by them
as one of their most sacred things. The chief now ordered that all should
sit down. He then inquired whether his cabin was prepared, and everything
made ready, according to the custom of his fathers. They then rose up and
commenced the war-whoop, as they marched round the war-pole. The ark was
then taken and carried with great solemnity into the council-house, and
here the whole party remained three days and nights, separate from the
rest of the people. Their first business now was to wash themselves
clean, and sprinkle themselves with a mixture of bitter herbs. While they
were thus in the house, all their female relatives, after having bathed
and dressed themselves in their finest clothes, placed themselves in two
lines facing each other on each side of the door. Here they continued
singing a slow monotonous song all day and night; the song was kept up
steadily for one minute, with intervals of ten minutes of dead silence
between. About once in three hours the chief would march out at the head
of his warriors, raise the war-whoop, and pass around the war-pole,
bearing his branch of cedar. This was all that was done for the whole
three days and nights. At length the purification was ended, and upon
each of their cabins was placed a twig of the cedar with a fragment of
the scalps fastened to it, to satisfy the ghosts of their departed
friends. All were now quiet as usual, except the leader of the party and
his waiter, who kept up the purification three days and nights longer.
When he had finished, the budget was hung up before his door for thirty
or forty days, and from time to time Indians of the party would be seen
singing and dancing before it. When Boone asked the meaning of all this
strange ceremony, they answered him by a word which he says meant _holy_.
As this party had brought in no prisoners, he did not now witness their
horrible mode of torture. Before he left them, however, he saw enough of
their awful cruelty in this way. Sometimes the poor prisoner would be
tied to a stake, a pile of green wood placed around him, fire applied,
and the poor wretch left to his horrible fate, while, amid shouts and
yells, the Indians departed. Sometimes he would be forced to run the
gauntlet between two rows of Indians, each one striking at him with a
club until he fell dead. Others would be fastened between two stakes,
their arms and legs stretched to each of them, and then quickly burnt by
a blazing fire. A common mode was to pinion the arms of the prisoner, and
then tie one end of a grape-vine around his neck, while the other was
fastened to the stake. A fire was then kindled, and the poor wretch would
walk the circle; this gave the savages the comfort of seeing the poor
creature literally roasting, while his agony was prolonged. Perhaps this
was the most popular mode, too, because all the women and children could
join in it. They were there, with their bundles of dry sticks, to keep
the fire blazing, and their long switches, to beat the prisoner. Fearful
that their victim might die too soon, and thus escape their cruelty, the
women would knead cakes of clay and put them on the skull of the poor
sufferer, that the fire might not reach his brain and instantly kill him.
As the poor frantic wretch would run round the circle, they would yell,
dance, and sing, and beat him with their switches, until he fell
exhausted. At other times, a poor prisoner would be tied, and then
scalding water would be poured upon him from time to time till he died.
It was amazing, too, to see how the warriors would sometimes bear these
tortures. Tied to the stake, they would chant their war-songs, threaten
their captors with the awful vengeance of their tribe, boast of how many
of their nation they had scalped and tell their tormentors how they
might increase their torture. In the midst of the fire they would stand
unflinching, and die without changing a muscle. It was their glory to die
in this way; they felt that they disappointed their enemies in their last
triumph.
While Boone was with them, a noted warrior of one of the western tribes,
with which the Shawanese were at war, was brought in as a captive. He was
at once condemned, stripped, fastened to the stake, and the fire kindled.
After suffering without flinching for a long time, he laughed at his
captors, and told them they did not know how to make an enemy eat fire.
He called for a pipe and tobacco. Excited by his bravery, they gave it to
him. He sat down on the burning coals, and commenced smoking with the
utmost composure; not a muscle of his countenance moved. Seeing this, one
of his captors sprang forward and cried out that he was a true warrior.
Though he had murdered many of their tribe, yet he should live, if the
fire had not spoiled him. The fire had, however, well nigh done its work.
With that, he declared that he was too brave a man to suffer any longer.
He seized a tomahawk and raised it over the head of the prisoner: still a
muscle did not move. He did not even change his posture. The blow was
given, and the brave warrior fell dead.
While among them, Boone also witnessed the mode in which, the Shawanese
make a treaty of peace. The warriors of both tribes between which the
treaty was to be made, met together first, ate and smoked in a friendly
way, and then pledged themselves in a sacred drink called _cussena_. The
Shawanese then waved large fans, made of eagles' tails, and danced. The
other party, after this, chose six of their finest young men, painted
them with white clay, and adorned their heads with swans' feathers; their
leader was then placed on what was called the "consecrated seat." After
this they all commenced dancing, and singing their song of peace. They
danced first in a bending posture; then stood upright, still dancing, and
bearing in their right hands their fans, while in their left they carried
a calabash, tied to a stick about a foot long, and with this continually
beat their breasts. During all this, some added to the noise by rattling
pebbles in a gourd. This being over, the peace was concluded. It was an
act of great solemnity, and no warrior was considered as well trained,
who did not know how to join in every part of it.
Many other strange things were seen by Boone among these people, but
these are enough to show you that he was among a strange people, with
habits very unlike his own. It is not wonderful that he sighed to escape,
when he looked upon their horrid tortures. Independently of his love for
Boonesborough, he did not know but that such tortures might be his at any
moment, when they became excited. Fortunately, as we have seen, he did
escape, and we will now go on with his story.